Opening Doors

On 7 October 2019, I’ll be looking back over 14 years at Web Applications UK, and celebrating my last day as Chief Executive.

When I joined the company all those years ago, it was as a Consultant, working just four days a week. Within 18 months, I was asked to take over as Managing Director and became Chief Executive in February 2009. The ensuing decade has been a trial by fire and a great big mirror in which to discover who I am. An experience for which I am profoundly grateful.

From the outset, my goal has been to innovate – to try something new. The relentless pursuit of profit has never driven me; instead, I have sought to have a positive impact on the lives of those around me. I’ve certainly not always succeeded, but I’ve learnt and grown and made some wonderful friends along the way. When we work for each other, instead of for ourselves, we all benefit. As I said back in 2012, “If one can accept people can rise above selfishness, surely it is a small step to believe that business can too. And if we admire animals for morality, and we clearly admire people for the same traits, then why do we not judge businesses – the ultimate endeavour of our collective efforts – in exactly the same way. Surely the last measure of a business should be its level of self-interest?”

The truth is, self-interest already dominates too much of business, and it is profoundly damaging – something I have frequently experienced first hand. I don’t accept it has to be that way though, and I believe I can’t be the only one who feels that way. Indeed, the focus on people over profit has allowed Web Applications UK to be profoundly successful over the last 20 years. On taking the reins in 2007, one of my first acts was to attempt the formation of an Employee Benefit Trust, which led to the creation of our profit share scheme. I have always wanted to go much further though, and earlier this year, I gained 100% control of Web Applications UK and its assets. It’s at such times in life that we face the hard choice of staying true to our convictions or taking the easy path. I now have the opportunity to follow my dream of creating a new kind of business. That opportunity comes with the temptation of holding on to all I’ve fought so hard to create.

It should come as no surprise that my wife and I have decided to take this fantastic company and place it into the hands of an Employee Ownership Trust. We’re doing it a little differently though.

For a start, we’re not selling the company; it’s a gift. Secondly, we prefer to call it a Stewardship Trust. The Trust’s members (the Employees) may legally own the assets, but it’s in the same way that we legally own our beloved dogs, Bea and Bo. Stewardship is a beautiful responsibility of care, where we invest into something other than ourselves for the joy of it – where the reward is the effect, not the goal. The Trust will be made up of Stewards.

What we are giving away is worth significantly more than we’ve earned over the last fourteen years. We still live in Chadderton, in a modest home, with a mortgage. We are not wealthy, but we are grateful to have the opportunity to do something truly unique and original. Building something that outlasts us makes us far richer than holding tightly to the control we now have. When you love something as much as we love this company and its people, you only want the best for it, and them. Eventually, you have to let things go – to fly on their own.

Over the next few months, our focus will be on the creation of the Trust, and the preparations necessary to affect the transfer of the company and properties into it. We will continue to advocate for the movement and be there to support and encourage the directors and staff. We remain committed to working for the success of the Trust and its members. We hope to see more businesses join us in time as we demonstrate the benefits of allowing people to work for each other – rather than to enrich a chosen few. It’s an end of an era, but the start of something new and exciting. One of my last acts as Chief Executive will be to consign the old name for the company to history. The signs are already coming down, the branding being cleared away to make way for something new. Web Applications UK will be stepping down with me. What rises in its place will be something far better. It’s a grand experiment, a beautiful risk, a new way of doing business. After all, that’s what life should be about right?